Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

“Respectable” Black Women Fought Mass Incarceration
Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
02 Mar 2020
🖨️ Print Article

Back in the days when 90 percent of southern prison inmates were Black, socially conservative Black clubwomen fought for prison reform, believing that “putting Black women in jail was hurting the Black community,” said Nikki Brown, professor of history at the University of New Orleans. The National Association of Colored Women, who practiced what we today call “respectability” politics, played a key role in creating alternatives to incarceration, said Brown, who authored an article titled, “Keeping Black Motherhood Out of Prison: Prison Reform and Woman-Saving in the Progressive Era.”

Mass Black Incarceration

Related Podcasts

Involuntary Servitude in the Prison System
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Involuntary Servitude in the Prison System
24 June 2022
Savannah Eldrige is the founder of Coaliton to Abolish Slave
White Capitalist Law vs “Uncontrollable Blackness”
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
White Capitalist Law vs “Uncontrollable Blackness”
01 September 2020
The United States “criminalizes Black Americans,” but Black men “are not looking to be controlled” by this racist system, said Douglas
 Getting Out the Word: #PrisonsKill
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
Getting Out the Word: #PrisonsKill
25 August 2020
The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, IWOC, “is committed to the militant organizing of prisoners that takes its leadership and focus from

More Stories


  • China and Africa: the Black Alliance for Peace’s AFRICOM Watch Bulletin
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    China and Africa: the Black Alliance for Peace’s AFRICOM Watch Bulletin
    21 Apr 2021
    Those that call China a colonizer of Africa don’t understand colonization.
  • Pacifica Radio: Let’s Talk About the Debt
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Pacifica Radio: Let’s Talk About the Debt
    21 Apr 2021
    It’s difficult not to imagine that the secret plan is to sell WBAI’s license. “Most people support Pacifica because it’s community radio.”
  • Return to the Source: Trayvon Martin and White Madness, July 18, 2013
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    Return to the Source: Trayvon Martin and White Madness, July 18, 2013
    21 Apr 2021
    Black people cannot change white people’s warped perceptions of the world, although, Lord knows, we’ve tried.
  • Trauma Trivia
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Trauma Trivia
    21 Apr 2021
    We play America’s longest running game,  Trauma Trivia—gambling blue— Daily, weekly, monthly, annually—decades,  Centuries at a time…We play it again and 
  • The Black Working Class Must Defend Itself, Not the Black Misleadership Class
    Ujima People’s Progress Party
    The Black Working Class Must Defend Itself, Not the Black Misleadership Class
    21 Apr 2021
    Black political power is gained by expanding independent Black political institutions and bases around agendas not endorsed by the ruling elite. 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us